April 17, 2013

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2007-08 Precon Championships: Round 3 and the Leaderboard

by Dredd77

Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2007-08 Preconstructed Championships! We’re now about a quarter of the way through, with this past weekend’s action having given us a winner of the Nagle Division. Evincar’s Tyranny proved a surprising upset that caught many of our predictors off-guard, but plenty of points were picked up all the same.

What was it about Evincar’s Tyranny? Certainly it had its work cut out for it against some very strong opposition, but as a Core Set deck it seemed to fly beneath the radar. Aaro79 expressed it well when he noted, “I went with Elves in the last match because Evincar’s Tyranny had lots of removal, but no sweeper… turns out it DOES, actually — it’s just attached to the deck’s namesake. Against a deck that gets a lot of its firepower from 1/1 tokens, Ascendant Evincar is brutal, as seen in that first game. You’ve earned this slow golf clap, Crovax. Nicely done.”

Perhaps overlooked too was the deck’s size. Many noted the abundant removal spells in the deck, but with only 40 cards that package was effectively even bigger. Will Crovax have what it takes to keep the momentum going? As we turn to the Tinsman Division, we’ll soon find out who Crovax will be going up against for the right to represent the Rosewater Conference in the Grand Final!

As for our Prediction League, special mention goes to Jars Cristobal, Sparky, and Thatguyjames. All three of them got a perfect record this week, vaulting towards the top of the leaderboard. SPeaking of leaderboards, here’s how it looks after the dust clears on Week 2.

We still have a crowded field at the top, with it being too early yet to see a breakout leader. Indeed, there are plenty of points to play for yet, so if you’re closer to the bottom than the top don’t be discouraged! Fortunes in the Prediction League can change on a dime, and a good streak of guesses can make princes from paupers.

As always, should you note a discrepancy in our accounting, just let us know.

Now, let’s look forward to this weekend’s matches!

That’s right, there are two byes, meaning that only two points will be up for grabs this week! To assist you with your predictions, here is the dossier on the Tinsman Division’s contenders.

Detail: On the face of it, one could be forgiven for assuming that Battle Blitz was more or less another “aggressive Boros deck” in a long line of aggressive Boros decks, but that would be missing some of the subtlety that Battle Blitz brings to the table. Sure it likes you to attack early and often, but it also makes heavy use of the untap () mechanic. Attacking creatures have a second purpose as they untap themselves for all sorts of utility tricks, while wither and chroma give it extra impact. (Reviews not available)

Detail: A tribal Goblins deck, Lorwyn saw Black creep into the Goblin’s colour identity. Thanks to kinship and a plethora of tribal cards that card about Goblins this is a deck high in synergy. Though it can take some time to get going, these Goblins can certainly pack a punch once they get their act together! (Reviews)

Detail: For a more traditional look at the Goblin tribe, we have the Goblins deck from the first-ever Duel Decks release. Crammed with Goblins from both the Lorwyn and Onslaught blocks, this is an all-star murderer’s row of the best of what Red’s signature tribe has to offer. (Reviews)

Detail: Just when we were used to the tribal-by-race extravaganza of Lorwyn, Morningtide kicked it up even further by introducing tribal by class! Going Rogue is a deck for the inner sneak in all of us, bringing together Goblins, Faeries, Merfolk and more. Thanks to the prowl mechanic, big effects come at a cheap cost if you manage to get your Rogues through on an opponent for damage, giving this highly-rated deck a real leg up! Will it have what it takes to out-sneak the opposition? (Reviews)

Detail: Like we saw with Battle Blitz above, Overkill takes a familiar archetype then gives it a surprise twist! In this case, you get your stock standard Red/Green burn-n-beats, which can overrun a poorly-equipped opponent all by itself. But then its secret weapon are cards that card about the amount of land of a certain type you have in play, paired alongside other cards that play with land types. That Jaws of Stone becomes all the more lethal when all of your lands look like Mountains! (Reviews not available)

Detail: The second class-tribal deck from Morningtide brings us the Shaman of the Treefolk tribe. The set’s only three-colour deck, we found it overall to be fairly underwhelming. Still, a grove of Treefolk are nothing to trifle with if given enough time and space to take root and grow! (Reviews)

And there they are, the aspirants of the Tinsman Division! Don’t forget to leave your predictions for Games 5 and 6, which will go up sometime this Sunday. We’ll happily take predictions anytime up until then, and best of luck to all!

Only deck I’ve played before in this division is Overkill; my dad picked it up and it’s pretty scary. The Mossbridge Troll is just brutal and I don’t see many other decks having the stuff to get rid of it.

I’m leery of 3-color theme decks, especially considering Shamanism is putting in 2 plains for 2 non-critical spells. The Boggart have good synergy, but so does Blitz. With so many hybrid mana spells, Blitz isn’t as susceptible to the mana issues which plague many theme decks.

I feel that match 5 is no contest for Going Rogue, since the match was played out before and Going Rogue is one of the best decks this season has. Battle Blitz against Boggart Feast could be more even, but Blitz has more removal and tap tools and Boggart has only a few pieces of removal. Battle Blitz is also strong, it even gave a match to some of my constructed decks as is. A force to be reckoned with.